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Monday, February 10, 2014

Restaurant & Beer Review: Deschutes Brewery & Teller's

A couple of weeks ago, Cincinnati was introduced to a new craft beer - Deschutes Brewery from Portland/Bend, Oregon. Deschutes is the 6th largest craft brewery in the US and they have just come to the Ohio/Kentucky area! They know how much beer this area can put away - so they waited to make sure they had enough to supply us (I'm NOT kidding here).

Deschutes has been doing a string of events around the tri-state and are now found on-tap all around the area (just saw them at Amer-Asia last week). They invited Larry & I to sample their beers at a pairing dinner at Teller's in Hyde Park while they were in the area.

The menu for the evening looked delightful! We were seated in the vault room (such an interesting space if you haven't been) and had reps from Deschutes hanging out with us to share all the cool stuff about their beer.

We each got to take home these really great Deschutes Tulip Beer glasses. Thanks guys! Deschutes actually started out as a restaurant that made their own beer - then it became so popular - they sold it and expanded!

We started with a Spicy Tuna Tartare topped with Wasabi Tobiko and paired with their Mirror Pond Pale Ale. Mirror Pond is their most popular beer and it is the lightest of the night. The tartare was okay - it didn't have a lot of flavor. Larry wasn't too excited about roe - but he did try it at least. :-)

Next up was their Inversion IPA - it's a bold, hoppy beer. This was more Larry's speed than mine.

They paired it with this Grapefruit Salad with avocado, bibb lettuce, pepitas, cojito cheese and ruby red grapefruit. This was AMAZING! I couldn't get over the combination - but really it was the grapefruit that shocked me. I didn't think I liked grapefruit but it was awesome! I will definitely be putting this on my grocery list.

Next up was their Red Chair Northwest Pale ale paired with a Duo of Lamb. The Red Chair has a citrus punch (but still hoppy) that went well with the smooth ravioli, merguez sausage and white bean ragout - topped with a Red Chair foam. The serving size was very small but we enjoyed it.

Last up was the Black Butte Porter - it was dark and rich with lots of chocolate and coffee flavors layered in. What would go well with this Porter?

Donut Bread Pudding. Shut the front door! Seriously - they served us DONUT BREAD PUDDING!!!! This also had a Butte Porter Creme Anglaise and was completely amazing. Those flakes on the top? Kosher salt - wow! That just was the perfect topper to this dessert. I'm not sure I've had a better dessert. It went well with the beer too because the beer had the coffee and chocolate flavors so it was the perfect combo without being too rich. Victory!

Why Should You Go? I've been to Teller's before and it's a nice option in Hyde Park. It's not my favorite by any means but it's a good option. They have a wide menu and the vault room is great for small parties as well. The salad and dessert were amazing - but the starter and main were just okay. They were wonderful hosts to Deschutes and those guys were very friendly and informative. I didn't love any of the beers (but I'm a beer wuss) - but they are very popular and didn't get to be so big by accident. If you see them on tap around the city - give them a try!

Disclosure: Thanks to the folks at Deschutes for hosting Larry & I for dinner.

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About Me

Originally from Iowa, I hit the great state of Ohio nearly 10 years ago! Since then I've worked in a few different industries but have settled in the world of advertising. I've been blogging since '08 and have now moved up to #1 on Urbanspoon for Cincinnati food bloggers! Check me out at thefoodhussy.com.

My blog covers Restaurants, Recipes and Road Trips. I love food and I love sharing quick & easy recipes as well as hidden gems for you to stop and grab a DELICIOUS bite!